Bridge at Henley

PHOTOGRAPHING IN OLD ENGLAND.*

HE BAKER & TAYLOR Company, who are the publishers of Mr. W. I. Lincoln Adams' former books on photography and other subjects, have now published, in book form, the letters which have been. appearing in THE PHOTOGRAPHIC TIMES, entitled, "Photographing in Old England." They make a handsome volume, of over one hundred pages, containing all the beautiful illustrations, over seventyfive in number, which originally embellished the pages of this magazine, and several new ones as well.

The letters have been carefully revised by the author, for re-publication in book form, and considerable additional matter has been furnished by him. One entire chapter ("In Conclusion"), consisting of practical hints and suggestions for photographing abroad, has been written especially for this book; and from this chapter, containing, as it does, much excellent advice to the tourist photographer, we quote the following paragraphs:

"And first I will say a word in regard to the outfit. While I personally prefer glass plates to films for exact and deliberate photography, I must confess that the perfection to which the manufacturers of films have brought their products, makes it difficult for any one to detect any difference in the quality of the prints which are made from film negatives from those that are made from glass.

"Often indeed there is a pleasing soft quality that characterizes a print from a film negative, which is lacking in the glass negative print. But the convenience of the manipulation, the absence of weight, and the portability of films, are the chief considerations which should decide the tourist photographer in their favor over glass.

"Then, too, I have always advocated the use of a tripod for most photographic work, and I always carry one on my own trips with the camera; but I found comparatively little use for it on the journeys described in these letters. There are a number of the illustrations in this book made by timed exposures on a tripod; but I found it possible quite often to make a timed picture by resting my hand camera on a conveniently located wall, the balustrade of a bridge, or from a coach or motor seat; so that the tripod, compact and portable as it was, could, nevertheless, very largely be dispensed with. The convenience of a hand camera of fair size (34 inches by 51⁄2 inches) using spool film, was proved to me by experience on this trip, as never before.

"I always recommend the photographer to do his own developing, and even his printing, where possible; he should certainly perform both operations until he is quite proficient in them; but I know from experience that it is often difficult to do these things oneself, on a trip where darkrooms are infrequent, and time is limited. Arrangements by the dealers, moreover, for attending to all these matters for the traveling photographer are now so complete, that I personally took advantage of them on most occasions, and would advise the touring amateur to do likewise.

"And this leads me to the general subject of exposure, the size of the diaphragm, etc., on which I should like to say a few words. The size of the diaphragm, and the length

PHOTOGRAPHING IN OLD ENGLAND, by W. I. Lincoln Adams. New York, The Baker & Taylor Company.

of exposure, depend, of course, upon the amount of light, the time of day and of the year, and also upon the character of the subject, whether it be a dark or light object, whether the sun is shining full upon it, or from one side, and particularly whether it be near a body of water, in which case there is usually considerable light added to the subject by reflection.

"There may be some guess work required in exposing the first roll of films in a foreign country by the beginner; but one learns by one's mistakes, and the second roll is very likely to be more accurately exposed than the first one. I recommend that a small memorandum book be kept for the purpose of jotting down the particulars of each exposure, as this enables one to profit by one's failures, as well as by one's successes. And it is an excellent plan to develop oneself, at least the first roll of film, in order to ascer tain just how correctly one is diaphragming and timing one's exposures.

"I found f16 to be a good average stop for the usual street scene and snapshot. On a particularly bright day, between the hours of ten and three, f32 was better. But with the latter stop, I generally set my shutter to expose in 1/50 of a second, while with the larger stop, I could use 1/100 of a second exposure. And when moving objects were to be photographed, particularly on land, I found I naturally got much sharper figures with the latter exposure. In snapshot work, I usually set my focus at 100 feet, as I could generally place myself so as to have all the principal objects in my picture fall beyond that distance, and so be in sufficiently sharp focus. The nearer the focus, the quicker the exposure required in order to get an equally distinct image, so one should try to take near snapshots on bright days, as near noon as possible, in order that the quickest exposure may be sufficient.

"For timed exposures, a much smaller diaphragm can, and usually should, be used, as thereby greater definition is obtained, and the increase of time given is partially offset by diminishing the quantity of light admitted through the lens. I usually stopped down to f64 for my timed exposure.

"One reason why so many of the negatives made during the summer vacation time prove disappointing is simply because they have too much light and too little shade. This is, in turn, largely due to the very common mistake of working too near the middle of the day. During July and August the light from seven to nine a.m and three to five p.m. is so strong that it only requires about one and one half times the exposure of the midday hours. And when one takes into consideration the great advantage of a moderately low-down sun in giving long shadows, the extra exposure time is not worth considering as a detrimental factor. Moreover, it is in the early morning and late afternoon hours that we get the best atmospheric effects due to haziness of the air. The moral for the pictorialist in August is therefore:-avoid work between nine a. m. and three p. m.

"And now, in conclusion, a few words in regard to the size and shape of the pictures, the point of view, and the method of printing. Often the best view of a subject cannot be made when the photographer sees it for the first time, on account of the direction of the light. The exposure should then be deferred until the illumination is just right, so that the best possible picture may be made. Hand cameras are usually of a shape that makes the upright picture seem most natural to make; but there are many sub

jects, in fact, I think I may safely say that most subjects, particularly landscapes, look much better in a horizontal picture. It is only necessary to turn the camera, and with it the finder, in order to make the photograph in that position.

"Study your subject first, carefully and in detail, and then decide intelligently what point of view gives the most pictorial effect; what lighting, whether morning or afternoon, or late twilight, is most pleasing to the subject; and whether an upright or a horizontal picture is going to make the best composition. Then make your exposure deliberately, under just the conditions which you have decided are the best for this individual picture, even though it requires, as it frequently does, your return to the place on the following day.

"When the film or plate is developed, and the picture is made, there is still room for considerable improvement of your picture by the way it is trimmed. Because the negative is a certain size and shape is no conclusive reason why the printed picture should be of exactly the same size and shape. Usually a little judicious trimming greatly improves the pictorial effect of a print and sometimes I have found that to ruthlessly cut away a large part of it, makes an effective picture of what was before rather uninteresting and perhaps not particularly well composed. I have even found that there were two interesting smaller pictures to be found in a single larger one. The tail piece to this chapter, for instance, was cut from a larger picture, which was greatly improved thereby, and, at the same time, gave the little picture of London Cabs, which is quite complete and effective in itself.

"There is, of course, room for all kinds of taste in making the print. Of late the fashion seems to be, if I may use the word, for black and brown tones, and rather rough surfaces on the prints. On the whole, the present taste for matt surfaces seems to me to be an improvement over the highly polished print of an earlier day; and for most subjects the dark brown and sepia tones are well adapted to the average landscape or snapshot.

"After suitably trimming and assorting your prints mount them loosely on heavy sheets with liberal margins; or, what I personally very much prefer, preserve them in a substantially bound album, with gray or soft brown tinted leaves."

The book is beautifully printed on heavy wood cut paper, bound in cloth, and decorated with a design of Ann Hathaway's Cottage, in Shottery, near Stratford. It is quarto in size, full gilt, and put up in a substantial box. The price is $2.50, and the book will be sent to any of our readers, postpaid, by mail, on receipt of that amount. It is for sale, also, by all the leading dealers in photographic supplies, and book stores in general.